Adhesive coated metallic film



Dc. 6, 1938. w GRUPE 2,138,854

ADHESIVE COATED METALLIC FILM Filed May 14, 1934 INVENTOR i/kham y Hi5 }%R NEY Patented Dec. 6, 1938 ADHESIVE COATED METALLIC FILM William Frederick Grupe, Lyndhurst, N. 1., as-

signor to Peerless Roll Leaf Inc., Union City,N. J., a corporation of New York Application May 14, 1934, Serial No. 725,583

13 Claims.

i hesive material applied to one face thereof.

Beaten. gold or gold in a form comparable to beaten gold, has a thickness approximating one two-hundred-and-fifty-thousandths of an inch, and therefore readily subject to being torn or otherwise spoiled when handled manually. My invention, by virtue of the applied coating enables film or sheet gold of the magnitude of the thickness of beaten gold to be handled substantially freely without the hazard-of being torn or otherwise spoiled. The coating material also serves,

particularly for low carat leaf, to check tarnish- Advantageously, the coating material is an adhesive, applicable in the use of the gold film or sheets in the arts, as in sign painting, china and other decorating arts, and the like.

My invention includes further the utilization of a book, preferably having its normally lower cover stifi or but semi-flexible, and sheets of coated gold freely disposed between the leavesof the book. Desirably, the dull or less highly finished facebf the gold sheets, that is, the faces bearing the coating material, are positioned between the leaves of the book to face upward. The

top cover is flexible, or maybe absent. Suchbook facilitates the application of the individual gold sheets, as in sign painting and the like, the operator grasping the still? or semiwhole as a pad.

My invention is particularly applicable to the utilization of electrolitically derived film of gold, its alloys and the like, an established production of which embodies the use of a silver cathode upon which the film is deposited, the resulting composite product being subjected to a bath containing nitric acid, for the removal of the silver cathode, and the mounting of the thus derived film of gold or the like upon a carrier of paper or like medium. As is set out in my U. S. Patent ai -1,731,415, granted to me on Oct. 15, 1929, film of gold, its alloys and the like are obtained of a length materially greater than that of beaten gold, the-length of beaten gold averaging not greater than six or seven inches.

Further features and objects of my invention will be more fullyunderstood from the following detail description and the accompanying drawing, inwhich dissolved in benzine, gasoline, etc.

Fig. 1 is a transverse sectional view, largely diagrammatic, through a film of gold or section of gold film, bearing a coating or other applied material on a face, the stated parts being greatly exaggerated in individual and relative dimensions.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a book of sections or plates of gold filmindividually embodying my invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, a length, section, sheet or film of gold is indicated at ill. The highly finished face of the gold is denoted at Illa, and its relatively dull face at lb. The coating or layer of applied material II is shown applied to the relatively dull face lb of the gold film.

The coating or material is applied to the gold film in any suitable manner.

A preferred manner of coating or applying material to gold film is as follows:

- The film of gold is produced in a status of mechanical attachment to a suitable carrier strip. As one means of obtaining the same, a strip of indefinite length of silver is passed through a bath containing a solution of gold, and gold electrolytically deposited upon the silver strip serving as a cathode, the thickness of the deposit being regulated by the speed of :travel of the cathode through the bath, the control of the electrical circuit, and otherfactors well-known to those skilled inthe art, reference being had to the Demel U. S. Patents #1,512,825, dated Oct. 21st, 1924 and a t-1,513,696, dated Oct. 28th, 1924.

The resulting silver carrier gold film strip is I then treated for the removal of the silver, as by flexible cover as a handle and the book as a passing the same through a bath of nitric acid, and then through a bath of water for the removal of nitric acid, and then through a bath of other medium for removal of water and/or other materials foreign to gold.

Pursuant to my invention, the thus freed film of'gold is then passed through, and preferably upon the surface of, a bath containing the sizing and/or other material with which film is to be coated.

The sizing may be of the water base type, such as animal glue, gum arabic, etc. The base of the sizing may be alcohol, as in shellac, manila copal, resin including rosin, etc. The sizing may have a hydrocarbon as a base, such as rubber or latex water base sizing be employed, the gold film may be passedfrom the water bath employed in the "removal of the silver carrier strip directly to and upon the surface of the bath of the water base sizing, reliance being had of the surface Should a L tension effect. When an alcohol or hydrocarbon base sizing is employed, the water residual from the water bath, is removed in any suitable manner prior to passing the gold film to the bath of the alcohol or hydrocarbon base sizing.

Sizing of the character above described, when applied to one face of the film and allowed to harden, possesses toughness which acts as a reinforcement for the film. The coating of sizing applied should be of sufiicient strength, attained by the particular attributes of the sizing employed and/or by thickness of coating, to in itself adequately reinforce the film for ordinary handling assuming the film to be otherwise unsupported.

Other suitable material may be applied to the gold film in like manner.

The resulting strip or indefinite length of gold film may then be cut to suitable size, or may be Wound as a roll.

By the stated or equivalent electrolytic production of gold film, of such length as may be desired, the face of the film adjacent the silver or other cathode carrier is the relatively dull face, indicated at Illb in Fig. l. The face lflb, accordingly, is the lower face of the gold film when passed through or upon the nitric acid bath serving as the silver removing medium, thus enabling the thus released gold film to be continued in its same position to the adhesive or other coating bath,

The thus derived individual cut sheets or film of gold are preferably stored in a book formed of a stiff or semi-flexible lower back l2, leaves l3, of suitable thin paper, an upper flexible cover l4, and bound at the back IS. The leaves I3 may be face-calendered and/or dust'ed or coated with rouge to be rendered non-adhesive, or treated with oil or otherwise to be rendered adhesive relative to the gold film or sheets inserted between the leaves l3.

The respective films or sheets of gold may all be inserted with its coated face lflb disposed upward, that is to say, direcmd opposite to the stiff or semi-flexible cover I2, or the respective films or sheets may be all inserted with their coated faces positioned downward, either arrangement serving to identify the high finish face of the gold films or sheets by their positions relative to the rear or lower cover of the book.

Such book, in addition to its function as a carriage and dispensing medium, serves also as a pressure pad device as, for example, for sign painting, the painter after preparing the surface of the glass or other material to be lettered or otherwise embellished, opens up his book, to expose the uppermost film or sheet of gold, and successively the succeeding films or sheets, upon turning over the successive pages of the book.

If desired, the upper cover [4 may be omitted.

Whether with or without the cover I4, the bulk of the book, after exposing the uppermost sheet or leaf of gold, may be employed by the operator as a pad in applying such uppermost leaf to the work, such as the painting of a sign, etc.

The use of the book having all of its contained gold sheets or leaf positioned with their highly finished faces upward, applies in such instances of use, as in a sign or other embellishment viewed through glass or other transparent medium, in which circumstance the rear face of the glass or other transparent medium is treated with sizing and the gold applied with its highly finished face in contact with the sizing.

For certain commercial uses, the coating material, which may or may not be of adhesive character, is dyed of a predetermined color, such as green, lemon or light yellow, red, etc., to impart such color to the gold film or sheet affected by the transparency of the film or sheet arising from its extreme thinness, i. e., of the magnitude of beaten gold.

Whereas I have described my invention by reference to specific forms thereof, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. A fragile metal film having one face substantially coextensively coated with a non-metallic hardened and tough reinforcing coating material of sufficient strength to in itself adequately reinforce the said metal film for ordinary handling, said film being otherwise unsupported.

2. A fragile metal film having one face substantially coextensively coated with a hardened and tough adhesive sizing of suflicient strength to in itself adequately reinforce the said metal film for ordinary handling, said coated face being exposed for suitable adhesion to a supporting surface.

3. A fragile metal film as recited in claim 2 wherein the stated adhesive sizing is artificially colored.

4. A fragile metal film having one face substantially coextensively coated with a hardened and tough, resinous adhesive sizing of sufficient strength to in itself adequately reinforce the said metal film for ordinary handling, said coated face being exposed for suitable adhesion to a supporting surface.

5. A fragile metal film as recited in claim 4 wherein the stated resinous adhesive sizing is artificially colored.

6. A fragile gold film having a thickness comparable to that of beaten gold and having one face substantially coextensively coated with a hardened and tough adhesive sizing of suflicient strength to in itself adequately reinforce the said gold film for ordinary handling, said coated face being exposed for suitable adhesion to a supporting surface.

7. A fragile metal film as recited in claim 6 wherein the stated adhesive sizing is artificially colored.

8. An electrolytically deposited fragile film of gold having a thickness comparable to that of beaten gold and having one face substantially coextensively coated with a hardened and tough adhesive sizing of sufiicient strength to in itself adequately reinforce the said gold film for ordinary handling, said coated face being exposed for suitable adhesion to a supporting surface.

9. A strip of gold film having a thickness comparable to that of beaten gold and an integrally continuous length materially greater than the greatest possible integrally continuous length of beaten gold, said strip having one face substantially coextensively coated with a hardened and tough adhesive sizing of sufficient strength to in itself adequately reinforce the said gold film for ordinary handling, said coated face being exposed for suitable adhesion to a supporting surface.

10. A fragile gold film as recited in claim 9 wherein the stated adhesive sizing is artificially colored.

11. A metal-leaf applying book comprising a plurality of metal-leaf sheets, each consisting solely of a fragile metal film having one face substantially coextensivelycoated with a hardened and tough adhesive sizing of sufficient strength 75 to in itself adequately reinforce the said metal film for ordinary handling, said coated face being exposed for suitable adhesion to a supporting surface, and said book further comprising separating-sheets interposed between mutually adjacent metal-leaf sheets.

12. A fragile gold film as recited in claim 8v wherein the stated adhesive sizing is artificially colored. c

13. A gold-leaf applying book comprising a plurality of gold-leaf sheets each consisting solely of a fragile gold fllm having one fat-e substantially coextensively coated with a hardened and tough adhesive sizing of sumcient strength to in itself adequately reinforce the said gold film for ordinary handling, said coated face being exposed for suitable adhesion to a supporting surface, and said book further comprising separating-sheets interposed between immediately adjacent goldleaf sheets. 7

WILLIAM FREDERICK GRUPE. 

